Life Cycle Assessment of a Circularity Case Study Using Additive Manufacturing

Currently, considering the rising concern in climate change, there is a clear necessity for technologies that can prolong the useful life of products through the ability to repair, re-manufacture and refurbish. As such, additive manufacturing has been a subject of research due to its design and resource consumption capabilities. However, there is a lack of more detailed information regarding environmental performances, especially in Directed Energy Deposition technology. The present paper presents a life-cycle assessment of the production and use of Directed Energy Deposition, making use of foreground data to build a life-cycle inventory and quantify the potential impacts. The equipment is analyzed for its refurbishment capabilities on an obsolete mold, and compared with the environmental impact of producing a new mold through conventional technology. The compiled inventory with detailed and primary information will enrich the current literature on this technology. The impact results show that the robot, deposition table and security cell are the most relevant subsystems for the system production impacts. In the refurbishment analysis, the refurbished mold part has lower impacts than the conventionally produced, thus showing that there is great potential in using additive manufacturing for circular economy loops.